Okay, so, an idea or ten.

Aeronautical Vigilante · 08-07-2006, 04:43 AM

All right... I mentioned this in another thread and now I'm thinking about it quite a bit... Waaay back during the first 'zero hour days' of 6.0 back around March 2005 (I sincerely thought 7.0 was imminent back then!), I proposed the idea of monthly (or bimonthly) DDR Original Simfile Contest competitions. I think jammitch! was the one who pointed out how insane this could be... Numbered OSCs (the main line) would simply be once maybe a year if we were to do this, with the bimonthly competitions being quick affairs with theme limitations, streamlined judging, and (hopefully!) smaller numbers of entries. Think Tournamix 4+ or the Best of Tournamix sessions.

Now, here's the thing. I'm specifically bringing this up when BlueSS is not around so that I get community opinions, as untainted as possible. I want to know what people think of the idea of regular OSC mini competitions, and if they have ideas for themes. Here's some I've thought of:
* Old School: Songs must be from Tournamix 1, 2, or 3, or DDR OSC 1.
* Anime: Duh. Songs from or inspired by anime series.
* Video Game Soundtracks: Similarly obvious, but unlike some similar projects, any rhythm game that's not a foot game (Guitar Hero/Freaks, Beatmania, Gitaroo Man) would be valid.
* Movies: (US/Canada/Europe) Songs from or inspired by movies.
* Obscurities: Songs from independent labels (predominantly unrelated to the Big Five).
* Off-Kilter: Songs that aren't in 4/4 or similar timings (think DM Ashura's Seven or GO, though those two would be specifically barred).
* Creative Commons: All content must be available under a Creative Commons license with at least the priviledges of BY-NC-SA.
* Solo: See the current planned Challenge Round.
* Doubles: All about two pads at once, man.
* Keyboard: Could be combined with other themes. At least one a year would have this stipulation attached ideally.

You see my ideas, now if you guys can post some of your own (or constructive reasons this is a bad idea), that would be nice. I just want to start another line of discussion to influence my thinking about this - getting a small number of songs to pull out during down times would be nice.

Xythar · 08-07-2006, 05:41 AM

Quarterly? XD I admittedly don't want to spend all my time simfiling and reviewing, but at the same time yearly feels too infrequent.

Thing is, at the moment I already participate in DDRExtreme.co.uk's comps for more frequent, smaller and often theme-based competitions, so this'd be pretty much more of the same for me. Of course, if they don't end up repeating some of the themes they ran and I missed (VG, TV, etc) then I'd want to have a shot at them here instead.

*Akira* · 08-07-2006, 05:48 AM

Great idea!

It should be schedule-friendly though

Juub005 · 08-07-2006, 09:16 AM

Well, I think monthly would be ridiculously difficult, or even bimonthly. Quarterly doesn't look that bad, however. I like these two ideas:

Quote:

* Obscurities: Songs from independent labels (predominantly unrelated to the Big Five).

Or from no label at all! (take a **** [nDDRo DGJ Invitational], Look me [OSC4])

Quote:

* Creative Commons: All content must be available under a Creative Commons license with at least the priviledges of BY-NC-SA.

I have no idea what the "BY" part means but I do know that the latter two mean noncommercial and share-alike, meaning that these files can't be used for any commercial purposes and must be published/created under the same license as the stuff it depends upon in order to exist.

Edit: Oh, BY is the Attribution one; you have to attribute the sources of the stuff you used in the way specified (or not specified which is what usually happens so you've gotta just um guess how to attribute the source) by the author.

Yeah the only reason I know what this means is that for a hell of a lot of my graphics I use photos from flickr.com's Creative Commons so yeah.

Finding songs for this purpose would be difficult, though, or at least I'm interested in knowing where to get them! (from myself doesn't count; I doubt I'd be able to produce a DDR-able song at this point having no knowledge of what equipment is necessary to do that)

Here's my ideas (DDR-type ideas.):
*DDROSC Club Mix: no freezes, single B/T/M double B/T required and only those stepcharts, try to mimic the peculiarities of DDR Club Mix. okay I've already done this myself but it would be funny to see everyone try it
*Nearly 1:30 - All songs must be shorter than 1:30. (haha score one for a spin on a DDR oni course!)
*"Essentials" Only - no extras allowed (except double?) - banner & background (only one copy of each - larger dimensions for Stepmania and smaller for DWI like I do would not be acceptable), B/T/M steps, readme, done!
*Originality Please - The use of songs by artists that have been used in previous OSCs or Tournamixes or even DDRExtreme.co.uk/nDDRo competitions is not allowed.
*HINOSC TEAM - Every entry must be a team entry, with it being suggested that the steps be split up between entrants.
*SUPER HINOSC TEAM - Every entry must be a team entry of 3+ people.

*OSC Pacific - a fancy title for the theme that chaos (meaning 16ths, 12ths, 24ths etc.) is forbidden in all entries; only 4ths and 8ths are allowed.
*Jolly Roger Mix - stupid title for the theme that only 4th and 12th notes are allowed.

These ideas are obviously biased towards my tastes so I'm interested in what other people might come up with.

Zounder · 08-07-2006, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Juub005

*Originality Please - The use of songs by artists that have been used in previous OSCs or Tournamixes or even DDRExtreme.co.uk/nDDRo competitions is not allowed.

Awesome idea.

I'll had a bunch of ideas for a thing like this, but I can't recall them now, I'll post them later.

I agree that quarterly is probably a better idea too, bimonthly could get a little strenuous.

TakeWalker · 08-07-2006, 09:31 AM

Despite the quagmire that this OSC is turning out to be (are they always like this?), I wouldn't mind having a second one every year. That'd be two online twice-a-year contests I'm in. <.<

And there are other OSCs open to public, right? I've been thinking lately I need to ask about those. If nothing else, it would give me a nice reason to keep simfiling.

Zounder · 08-07-2006, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakeWalker

That'd be two online twice-a-year contests

Not to steal OSCs thunder but there are other online contests (DDRExtreme.co.uk) if you want more contests to enter.

Still, this idea sounds pretty cool.

darkernights · 08-07-2006, 09:55 AM

the team contests sounds good. it would cut down on the number of entries and hopefully maybe the time to create one.

but overall id like to see more than 1 contest a year. this one turned out really fun.

Xythar · 08-07-2006, 10:12 AM

Yeah, maybe even just run the full OSC twice a year? There's some good songs I had planned for future competitions (for instance I've already planned what I want to use for OSC6 DDR), and I wouldn't want to 'waste' them on a non-full OSC, but at the same time if I don't then I run the risk of someone else beating me to them in one of the mini-OSCs while I wait for the next full one to enter the song in question.

alphabet55 · 08-07-2006, 11:03 AM

I love that idea. Just have them more than twice a year. Quarterly at least.

As for my idea of a theme, how about you must have a chosen word in your song title (fire, happy, duck, etc...). You could do this over and over and just pick a different word.

discovolante · 08-07-2006, 11:49 AM

I could go for monthly or bi-monthly honestly. Quarterly is definitely too infrequent.

Otherwise I'm heck psyched about this, I'll enter every goddam round.

*Eggman* · 08-07-2006, 01:06 PM

I could do them however frequent people wanted them to be and I'd probably enjoy it. Anime themed, video games, whatever.

Månåtor v0.25 · 08-07-2006, 04:19 PM

Creative Commons?
No thank you, stepmix failed at that and so would another.

Crazylegz · 08-07-2006, 04:35 PM

I think the idea is awsome. Having them seperated like that too makes it for a rather interesting competion as well.

TakeWalker · 08-07-2006, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zounder

Not to steal OSCs thunder but there are other online contests (DDRExtreme.co.uk) if you want more contests to enter.

Still, this idea sounds pretty cool.

Actually, the second contest I was referring to is a writing contest. <.<

Also, to the rest of you, some of us do have better things to do than creating and judging simfiles constantly. I think quarterly might be too much, but it'd be better than even bi-monthly. I mean, look at how much time this is taking. Y'need a bit of a cool-down between contests. Plus, the more often you do it, the less special it becomes.